Download Visual Micro 1906.16.1 for VS2017/2019
Download 1906.12 for AS7 (v1 vsix installer)
Download 1906.12 for AS7 (v2 vsix installer)

Note: Sometimes when Visual Micro loads a notice appears to say it took up to 7 seconds to load. We have reported this to Microsoft because the delay of 5+ seconds is due to a single request that we make for visual studio c++ properties. Normally the properties ate returned in less than 300ms but sometimes they take 5+ seconds. Hopefully we only see this issue after vs is first run after machine restart or upgrade/install of any extension or vs settings.

It is now possible (optional) to have Visual Micro installed into Visual Studio without it causing any delay to the startup time of Visual Studio. Furthermore Visual Micro will not load until needed which means zero IDE impact. Read more below ...

NB: There is an important compiler cache fix to resolve slow compile in the previous 1905 gallery version.

1906.16.1

• VS IDE now starts without loading Visual Micro unless bars are displayed that require Visual Micro to load.  This allows C++, VB.NET and C# developers to work with Visual Micro installed but without impacting the IDE until Arduino features are used (such as opening an .ino project)
• Improved toolbar auto visibility when an .ino project is opened. Auto visibility toolbars will hide before the IDE closes so that when the IDE is next used it will start quickly. In previous versions toolbars would be hidden after the IDE is restarted if an Arduino project was not opened.
• Added "Toolbar Auto Visibility" menu to the vMicro menu. All tool bar visibility commands have been moved from the "General" menu to the "vMicro>Toolbar Auto Visibility" menu.
• Add toolbar visibility menu item > "Auto All", which enables auto visibility for all bars. This saves having to click each toolbar to enable auto-visibility for many bars. In VS2019 it is recommended that the vMicro menu toolbar be displayed all of the time. This is because VS2019 does not show extension on the master menu bar at the top of the IDE.
• Minor fixes: Admin users: Auto roll out for large scale deployment. It is now possible to auto-configure all Visual Micro settings when a user first logs onto the IDE and uses Visual Micro.
• All toolbars are now hidden after first install (excl. the vMicro bar). 
• Changed the default auto visibility to 'True' for the Boards, Project and Serial toolbars This allows  new users to find options more easily. The vMicro menu does not default to "auto visibility" because of the note above about the VS2019 menu bar.
• Prevent build hook/event messages from being displayed unless verbose is enabled
• New user first time experience improved. The IDE locations config window is not prompted until a Visual Micro feature is used.
• Fix: New user IDE locations dialog failed to display on first run due to VS2017 InitializeAsync() failing to provide a valid win32WindowHandle.
• Added "Micro Board Options" tool bar
• Automatic hardware debugging configuration, GDB out-of-the-box.
• Extensible GDB configuration
• Fix: Removed Visual Micro settings from the Visual Studio "Help" menu. This was a mistake in recent versions, the same options are on vMicro>General and did not belong on the Help menu.
• Serial monitor default font change to same font as output windows

1906.12

• Fix: Slow compile. Recent changes for GDB caused project sources to always be compiled.
• Long standing bug caused some/slight "slowness" when navigating between source code files
• Fix: A shared project reference was not automatically added when adding a library as a shared project via the "Add Library" menu
• Fix: Automatic adding of shared library project reference to the current project failed to add the reference (required late binding due to avoid VS shims)
• Change!! Libraries included below the platform/core take priority over sketchbook/libraries. We made this change last year but had some complaints so rolled it back. However the Arduino IDE has applied this change therefore it is now applied to Visual Micro. This means that downloaded user installed libraries will be ignored if they exist below the installed board package platform. We have also extended visual micro to support a platform library override facilities "sketchbook/hardware/package_name/platform_name/libraries" and "sketchbook/hardware/package_name/platform_name/platform_ver/libraries" which provides a solution for people who do not want to use the library supplied by the author of the platform/core. 

Reminder: Shared library projects can also be used which then allows specific location libraries to be selected per project. This means a library can exist anywhere, for example below the solution folder allowing source control check-in alongside the project code. Obviously this way of working also supports different versions of the same library.

Known issues:-

• Since End of may 2019 (last month). Folder only mode fails. Note: Folder only mode is experimental and a very simplistic system compared to using normal Arduino/VS projects. It is recommended that the .ino file is opened at least once using File>Open Arduino Project so that a real Visual Studio project is created for you by Visual Micro.
• Tool windows might not render in VS2019, especially on first run of the IDE after installing or upgrading. Restart of the IDE should resolve. For persistent problems switch off "Tools>Options>General>Optimize rendering for different screen densities". This is a problem for many extension authors and is a result of internal VS changes. We will release an update shortly with a complete fix. Please let us know in this/the forum if you continue to have difficulties with tool window rendering.